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The Government will release new rules for councils to open up more land for housing tomorrow.

The national policy statement (NPS) on urban growth, which was signalled in the Budget, will be released by Housing Minister Nick Smith at Parliament.

The statement -- which is mostly targeted at Auckland -- will direct councils to rezone land for residential development if they pass specific thresholds in population growth or housing affordability.

Last week, the Government talked tough on the issue, saying that restrictive planning rules were the biggest obstacle to increasing housing supply. If councils did not free up land, the Government would force them to, Prime Minister John Key said.

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Labour Party housing spokesman Phil Twyford said for the NPS to be effective, the Government needed to find a way to pay for the infrastructure that new housing developments would require. He estimated that the $17 billion in new infrastructure was needed to cover the cost of Auckland's growth.

Auckland Council opposes changes to its urban boundary. It says that developments with capacity for 23,000 homes have been approved outside of its urban limits.